Mechanical Issue Stops Caruth’s Bid For Truck Title Berth

Rajah Caruth in action Friday night at Martinsville Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Rajah Caruth was fighting for his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship dreams Friday night at Martinsville Speedway, until his truck had other plans.

The Spire Motorsports driver entered Martinsville needing to win to advance to the final round of the postseason in his sophomore Truck Series campaign. However, at lap 107, a mechanical issue put Caruth behind the wall and out of contention.

Caruth’s night unraveled after curb-hopping just before the end of the second stage, while battling Chase Purdy for position. He shot up the racetrack and then slowed dramatically, falling to the tail of the lead lap in 28th at the lap-100 benchmark. His brief stay in the garage area came just after the next restart.

The culprit was later identified as the left front brake, which went away on the No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST and left Caruth 31st at the finish, 21 laps down to winner Christian Eckes.

It was a bittersweet end to Caruth’s playoff run, after showing improvement throughout his second season in the Truck Series with five top-five and 12 top-10 finishes, both career-high marks for the 22-year-old.

“We don’t know exactly what happened (to the truck),” said the Washington, D.C., driver of his Round of 8 exit. “I had to put myself on the curb after I got inside the 77 (Chase Purdy), and he didn’t really give me a lane … I don’t know if I just needed to do something better there or maybe not taken the gap, but something broke after that. I don’t know specifically what broke, but I didn’t have a left front brake for the whole second stage and just had to fight with what I had after that.

“It’s definitely a big bummer, for sure, but I’m super proud of the whole Spire Motorsports team for getting it fixed and getting us back out on the racetrack, because at a place like this you never know what could happen until it’s all over, as we kind of saw there in the final laps.”

Caruth’s career year with the Spire Motorsports team included his first win, which came in March at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway and qualified him for the playoffs, but a title shot after that just wasn’t meant to be.

“Right now, it’s hard to put into words what I’m feeling, but it’s definitely bittersweet to see our playoff run come to an end like this with something that’s kind of out of our control,” Caruth admitted. “But we’ve still got one more race to go out and show what we’re made of, so we’ll come back stronger next week at Phoenix and try to spoil the party like Christian (Eckes) did last year when he won there.”

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season finale at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway takes place Friday, Nov. 8, with broadcast coverage starting at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.